I wanted to write about a book I have been reading, but a young man broke into my thoughts. Only 21 years old and sitting on the death row in Singapore.
Malaysian Yong Vui Kong — who was to have been hanged last Friday — is living on borrowed time, his execution stayed until the Court of Appeal hears his case tomorrow.
His appeal for clemency has already been rejected by the President.
The law is clear. He was found guilty of trafficking 47g of heroin in November last year — more than three times the amount for a mandatory death sentence in Singapore.
He himself withdrew his appeal against the death sentence — only to appeal again after being denied clemency.
Blogger Andrew Loh of The Online Citizen points out how unusual the case is:
The court cannot override the President; however, one has the right to appeal under the constitution. And, so when the court meets tomorrow, young Vui Kong will possibly find out what will be his fate.
Singapore has a heart, no doubt about it, if one reads Andrew Loh's moving account of the young man and sees the picture on The Online Citizen which shows a group of young men and women gathered in a park, holding up a poster which says: "Vui Kong, we care."
Singapore has a heart, no doubt about it, when one sees a short video on the blog interviewing Vui Kong's brother.
Beyond doubt, too, is the fact that young Vui Kong had gone hopelessly wrong, selling pirated CDs, working for debt collectors and hanging out with gangs in Malaysia from a very young age.
But would he have gone wrong had he not grown up in grinding poverty? Would he have gone wrong had he and his mother not lived close to starvation, according to Andrew Loh?
We will never know.
What we do know is that he wanted to earn more. Don't we all?
That's no excuse for falling into criminal company, of course.
Yes, he should have known right from wrong, gone hungry if he had to, and slaved away at the Chinese restaurant where he worked before falling in with secret societies and drug runners.
He might have starved, but that's not against the law. Nobody's conscience would have been pricked by reports of a young man sitting on death row, awaiting the hangman's noose. We would have simply not known about his life of poverty.
Singapore has a heart, no doubt about it, a desire to do the right thing — or why should the court hear his appeal after he has been denied clemency?
Young Vui Kong cried when he saw his mother last week, we are told. He knelt and bowed to her three times as a mark of respect and to seek forgiveness.
No wonder I can't get him out of my mind — a young man facing death, only 21 years old.
I am thinking of the young man; the authorities have to think of society at large.
Lawyers and judges have to think of precedents.
As you sow, so you reap, goes the saying.
But "To err is human, to forgive divine" — I am reminded of Alexander Pope.
But he was a poet, not a judge.
Thank goodness, I don't have to weigh the life of an individual against the welfare of society as a whole. For if there's a tussle between the head and the heart, the outcome is a no-brainer really.
Maybe that's why the death penalty is mandatory for certain crimes.
It absolves everyone of responsibility for the punishment meted out except the offender himself.
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